A drone program can have capable aircraft, skilled pilots and sophisticated sensors yet still struggle to turn those assets into a coordinated operation. Different manufacturers bring different interfaces. Flight planning, airspace authorization, live video and reporting often require separate applications. Operators must connect the pieces while keeping their attention on the mission. Airwise Solutions built its business around closing those gaps.
During a recent Dawn of Autonomy podcast, Airwise co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Josh O’Leary described how the company connects the drone mission lifecycle, from planning and authorization through live operations, analytics and reporting. Its goal reaches beyond simplifying software. Airwise wants to help public-safety agencies, infrastructure operators and enterprise teams turn drone programs into dependable operational capabilities. “People think drones are great, but that’s not the point,” O’Leary said. “The point is, what do you do with the data?” That question anchors Airwise’s approach to integration, whether an organization needs to coordinate a mixed fleet, share emergency-response video or prepare for more advanced operations.
Fragmented Drone Software Becomes a Connected Mission Lifecycle
O’Leary knows the challenges of drone operations firsthand. A mechanical engineer with roughly two decades of drone experience, he previously worked on precision mapping for a national right-of-way acquisition company. Completing an assignment could require 15 to 18 software tools, he recalled. He had to navigate among applications to assess airspace, obtain authorizations, examine terrain, plan flights, collect information and create deliverables. Sometimes the workflow broke down in the field, where he discovered that he lacked access to necessary data.
Safety concerns made those gaps consequential. During pipeline mapping flights, O’Leary encountered low-flying crewed inspection aircraft near his drone’s operating altitude. “I have no idea if I’m safe right now,” he recalled thinking.
Afterward, another problem emerged. Organizations did not always use the full value of the information they collected. Detailed three-dimensional models could become flattened images and PDFs, which stripped away useful context. “You’re leaving so much data on the table for both you and the client,” O’Leary recalled telling colleagues.
Those experiences helped shape Airwise. Its founders sought to bring preflight, in-flight and post-flight workflows together instead of forcing operators to assemble a software ecosystem themselves.
Airwise Nexus and UA Sidekick Bring Drone Workflows Together
Airwise eventually expanded from its initial offerings focused on mission planning into a broader operational platform. Its acquisition of UASidekick brought airspace authorization capabilities into its ecosystem. O’Leary described Nexus as the umbrella for much of the broader platform, while Airwise retains the established Sidekick name, as it continues adding functionality.
Airwise supports National Airspace Awareness, weather, flight planning, FAA authorizations, live operations, post-flight analysis, compliance, reporting and fleet management. O’Leary explained why those functions need to connect: an authorization alone does not tell an operator everything happening during a mission, and collecting flight data does not automatically make it useful afterward.
Airwise also allows customers to adopt selected capabilities rather than requiring every organization to start with the entire platform. “Even if you have a small drone program,” O’Leary said, “you can grow into what we provide, because we provide what you need as you scale.” That flexibility supports organizations at different stages of maturity, from teams seeking an authorization tool to programs coordinating aircraft, sensors and multiple users.
A Common Operating Picture for Mixed Drone Fleets
Mixed fleets create a recurring challenge. Each manufacturer may offer useful software, but an organization operating several aircraft types can end up managing multiple disconnected environments. “The problem that I’ve seen, and that our customers have complained about, is having 10 or 12 UIs and trying to absorb all this data,” O’Leary said. “That’s not feasible in real time.”
Airwise’s Nexus common operating picture brings available data into a shared view. O’Leary described inputs that include radar, ADS-B, Remote ID, drone telemetry and video. The picture depends on available sensors and connected feeds, rather than providing universal visibility by itself.
The platform’s three-dimensional visualization helps users understand altitude relationships that a two-dimensional display can obscure. That distinction matters in low-altitude operations, where aircraft may operate with much smaller vertical separations.
O’Leary did not suggest that operators must abandon every manufacturer interface. A pilot may continue flying through an aircraft’s native software while using Airwise to monitor surrounding traffic, restrictions and alerts. The objective is to reduce the fragmentation that makes operators look across several screens to reach one decision.
Live Video Integration Connects Field Teams and Command Staff
Airwise applies the same integration philosophy to video. O’Leary said the platform can bring streams from different drone brands and connected cameras into a mission, then notify designated recipients when video becomes available. Users can access feeds through the Sidekick mobile app and the common operating picture. “We don’t care if you’re bringing us a DJI stream, a LiveU stream, or a Skydio stream,” he said.
He characterized the company’s recently announced LiveU partnership as complementary. LiveU helps move field data to the cloud, while Airwise helps deliver that information from the cloud to users. The distinction shifts attention from simply broadcasting video to making it useful. A command officer may need an incident overview, while a responder needs a specific camera view. Connecting both users to the right information can change how they act.
Tulsa Fire And The Value of Connected Drone Operations
O’Leary illustrated that value through a real-world chemical fire along Tulsa’s riverfront. A firefighter launched a drone and streamed video through Airwise as chiefs, captains and additional crews joined the response. The pilot spotted fire advancing through the tank system toward a fire truck on the opposite side.
“So he called them and said, you guys need to move,” O’Leary recalled. The crew repositioned. Roughly seven minutes later, a tank exploded and its lid landed where the truck had stood.
The operation then presented an airborne hazard. A news helicopter approached from behind smoke that blocked the drone pilots’ view. The team saw the helicopter through an ADS-B feed in the common operating picture and warned pilots to descend. “One of the pilots tilted his camera up just in time to see the helicopter come right through the smoke from where he had been,” O’Leary said.
Thermal imagery supported another intervention. A pilot saw that firefighters’ suppressant streams missed the intended area and shared the drone feed with crews on elevated ladders. They used their phones to guide their aim.
All the while, as drone teams rotated aircraft to accommodate battery limits, Airwise kept their feeds together within one mission.O’Leary recalled Chief Baker crediting drone use with reducing what could have become a multiday fire to three hours. This vignette demonstrates the company’s broader proposition to connect aircraft, information and people so an organization can act on what its drones reveal.
Drone Compliance and Reporting Strengthen Program Accountability
Airwise’s shared ecosystem continues well after the flight. O’Leary said it consolidates records that otherwise require users to retrieve information from separate manufacturer systems. “It’s not just a single pane of glass in real time,” he said. “It’s also a single pane of glass later when you’re trying to do compliance.”
Public-safety customers use those records to show city councils and mayors their operational activity and support funding requests. Enterprise drone teams can similarly document the value they provide.
BVLOS, UAS Traffic Management and the Next Phase of Integration
As Airwise prepares for more advanced operations, O’Leary sees strategic coordination and real-time airspace awareness as complementary requirements. “UTM is a valuable strategic deconfliction methodology,” he said. “But it only works if everybody’s using it.”
Sharing intended flight areas helps participating operators coordinate, but unexpected traffic still demands tactical awareness. O’Leary anticipated challenges as public-safety missions and enterprise operations fit into evolving frameworks associated with Parts 108 and 146. He cautioned that the eventual requirements remain uncertain and reported that Airwise had reached phase three of a four-phase FAA NTAP process for its UTM work.
The company also extends its integration capabilities through Nexus X, its data exchange. Developers, drone manufacturers and utilities can bring Airwise data into their own interfaces without adopting its front end. “You don’t have to use our front end,” O’Leary said. That approach positions Airwise as both an operational platform and a software partner for the broader industry.
In the meantime, customer feedback continues to guide development. O’Leary said he could trace individual product features to requests from specific groups of customers. The platform evolves around the operational problems those users encounter, not just the capabilities software developers imagine they might need.
The company’s next chapter will ultimately build on the same problem that prompted its founding: organizations need more than individual tools. They need those tools, and the information they generate, to work together.